If nothing else, this edition of the world juniors might indicate how far you can dig before the well runs dry. Having tried in Toronto and an especially lukewarm Montreal twice in the past three years, the IIHF jammed the tournament back in Buffalo only six years after the Russians scored five third-period goals to come back from a 3-0 deficit to beat Canada in the final, and got so drunk they weren’t allowed on their plane home the next day. Between the hostile Canadian-dominated crowd and a host nation whose legal drinking age is 21, those Russians really did deliver one of this under-20 tournament’s defining achievements.

Seven years later, the Russians lost to the Czech Republic to start the day, and then Canada’s 4-2 win over Finland came in front of a lot of empty seats. When they played Russia here on Boxing Day in 2011, the place was full of some 20,000 brash, singing Canadian fans. This time, they announced the crowd at 9,552.

Maybe it’s cost; maybe it’s fatigue; and maybe a small part is that this Canadian team isn’t billed as an all-timer, or even a now-timer.

The crowd for the USA/Denmark game looked smaller than the Canada game.

added 8:50am, Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News,

Tuesday was not an auspicious start.

There might have been 2,000 folks in the KeyBank Center stands to see the Czech Republic's upset of Russia in the opener. Canada got better as its 4-2 victory over Finland went along in a game played in front of maybe 8,000 fans. Team USA battered Denmark in front of a pathetic house of maybe 5,000 -- and officials closed the 300 level and offered fans comp seats down below. Which had to make folks who paid for that level super-duper happy about the extra money they shelled out.

Organizers have to be choking on their hot chocolate after the intimate gatherings that entered the building. The Canada-Russia game played here on Dec. 26, 2010 drew a sellout crowd of 18,690. The US-Finland game that day drew 14,093. So what the heck happened Tuesday?

Whether the NTDP has produced elite talent, however, is not debatable. Jack Eichel, Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Dylan Larkin, Auston Matthews, Charlie McAvoy, and Zach Werenski are just some of today’s players who rolled through Ann Arbor. Generating the depth and breadth of American talent was the mandate in 1996 when the NTDP was launched under the watch of Ron DeGregorio, former USA Hockey president. Jeff Jackson, now Notre Dame’s coach, was the man behind the U-18 bench.

“We felt going forward, given what could be the growth of the game in our country, our population in this country, the fact that hockey had so much headroom to grow, that we should have a much higher percentage of Americans in the league,” said Dave Ogrean, former executive director of USA Hockey. “Now we do. It’s dramatically more than it was 10-15 years ago. Now to see a lot of these guys out there today like Jack Eichel, Patrick Kane, and Auston Matthews, it’s extremely exciting. It’s not just the number of players. But the number of impact players.”

December 18, 2017 – As the exclusive U.S. TV home of the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship, NHL Network will provide extensive coverage of the tournament in Buffalo, N.Y., including live game telecasts plus comprehensive previews, highlights, analysis and interviews within its studio programming and via @NHLNetwork on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

It’s definitely not the same tournament. It’s a sad story that the NHL players won’t be there and the best players won’t be there. I think, it will hurt hockey and it will hurt the fans because they would like to see the best players.

For the players who grew up playing hockey it was a dream to play in the Olympics, put their country’s flag on and to celebrate the Olympics with the whole family. The Olympics are not about hockey, they are about other sports. Cross-country skiers, ski jumpers are there, they are like a big family enjoying the Olympics. It’s a sad story.

There’s a lot of politics, money involved. I don’t want to still see it as a secondary tournament. I think, players who are going to be invited there should be proud of having the chance that other players enjoy.

-Jari Kurri at RT.com where you can read more or watch a 26 minute video of the interview.

Scott Young knows what it is like to be part of an influx of talent. He was there in 1996 on the USA Hockey roster that won the World Cup of Hockey, part of a group of American players that would come to be known as the greatest generation, one that included Pat LaFontaine and Brian Leetch and Mike Modano and Keith Tkachuk.

He sees something familiar happening now.

"USA Hockey has done such a tremendous job," said Young, who was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame on Wednesday. "I think you see right from the grassroots of it now when you look at the ADM [American Development Model], the NTDP [National Team Development Program]. There's a clear path now.

"Right now, USA Hockey is in the hunt for all the gold medals in the world championships at every level. They've obviously done it right, and I think there are a lot of countries that are trying to copy the U.S. now."

It was a hot topic amongst the inductees to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. In addition to Young, Ron Wilson, the all-time winningest American head coach in NHL history; Jack Parker, the longtime Boston University coach; Ben Smith, who served as head coach of the 1998, 2002, and 2006 women's Olympic teams; and Kevin Collins, who officiated more than 2,000 NHL games, were honored. Peter Lindberg and Dave Ogrean received the Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding contribution to hockey in the United States.

The TSN Hockey Insiders discuss the likelihood of the Senators trading Erik Karlsson, Ottawa's need of recouping draft picks, the latest on Evander Kane potentially being moved, and injuries to a pair of Team Canada WJC returnees.